SAIL ties up $350 mn ECB with SBI

The Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has tied up an External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) of USD 350 million with State Bank of India (SBI) for a door to door tenure of seven years.

The ECB has been arranged by SBI from its Hong Kong Branch and would be utilized by SAIL towards meeting expenditure on capital schemes including modernization and expansion (MEP). The Company is in the final leg of completing its balance modernization projects, wherein it aims to diversify its product basket with more value added products and ready to use products customized to the market demands.

SAIL has tied the ECB at the lowest possible spread and the overall cost (on a fully hedged basis) would work out cheaper than that applicable coupon on Term Loans and Bonds for similar period. This re-emphasizes the lenders confidence in the credit worthiness of the company.